Starting with its May 2002 issue, the American Journal of Nursing (AJN), the official journal of the ANA, is publishing a bimonthly, palliative nursing care continuing education (CE) series. The series of articles will present a broad review of best research and practices in end-of-life care using actual case studies to improve the way nurses care for the dying and their families.

Specific topics that will be covered in the series include pain management; symptom management; cultural considerations in end-of-life care; ethical and legal issues; preparation and care for the time of death; achieving quality of life at the end of life; and grief, loss and bereavement.

The series builds upon the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) project, an initiative of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing and City of Hope to improve nurses' breadth of knowledge on end-of-life care. ANA serves on the ELNEC steering committee and participated in ELNEC curriculum development. ANA has long been involved with end-of-life and palliative nursing care issues, having published a series of position statements on these issues in the 1990s (available at www.NursingWorld.org). ANA also belongs to the Last Acts Campaign, a coalition of professional and consumer organizations that has launched a national effort to raise awareness of the need to improve care of the dying and to share issues and ideas at the national, state and local levels.

CE contact hours are available for each article. All articles in the series will be posted on the Internet at www.ajnonline.com and www.nursingcenter.com. Also, to foster discussion of the articles, readers' responses to the case studies and research on end-of-life care are welcome.